Defiant Hamilton delivers counterpunch to Elkann’s rebuke

Hours after Ferrari chairman John Elkann publicly accused his Formula 1 drivers of “talking too much” and “thinking too little about Ferrari”, Hamilton has fired off a defiant message of his own – short, sharp, and unmistakably personal.

“I back my team. I back myself. I will not give up. Not now, not then, not ever. Thank you, Brazil, always,” the seven-time world champion wrote on Instagram. 

Hamilton’s post came just after Elkann’s headline-grabbing remarks at a Milan event celebrating Ferrari’s endurance racing success last weekend in Bahrain. The Italian executive had praised the WEC squad for its unity, then pivoted to Formula 1 with a blunt comparison that left little room for interpretation.

“The rest is not up to par,” Elkann said. “We have drivers who need to focus on driving, talk less… We need drivers who think more about Ferrari and less about themselves.”

For a team already raw from a disastrous São Paulo weekend – with Charles Leclerc crashing out early, through no fault of his own, and Hamilton retiring after a contact on Lap 1 – the chairman’s public rebuke detonated like a thunderclap over Maranello.

From Nightmare to Noisy Boardroom

Hamilton’s arrival at Ferrari this season was supposed to herald a rebirth. Instead, his debut campaign has turned into a grind. After Brazil, Hamilton called it “a nightmare,” admitting the dream of driving in red had collided with a brutal reality. That candour appears to have rubbed Elkann the wrong way.

In the chairman’s view, the team’s operational performance has tightened – pit stops, reliability, race execution – but the drivers, he implied, must “stop talking and start delivering.”

Perhaps the comments were meant to motivate, not humiliate. But Hamilton’s measured defiance suggested he heard the sting loud and clear. And he’s not bowing.

His words carry a double meaning: loyalty to the garage, yes, but also a reminder that self-belief isn’t arrogance. It’s armour.

Leclerc, meanwhile, took the corporate line. Calling Brazil “a very difficult weekend,” he said only “unity can help us turn this situation around.” Between the two, the contrast was telling: Hamilton answered with fire; Leclerc, with diplomacy.

Elkann’s Misstep: A Chairman Out of Tune

If Hamilton chose restraint, veteran Ferrari insider Leo Turrini did not. The Italian journalist – whose decades-long coverage of the Scuderia gives him near-oracular status among tifosi – eviscerated Elkann’s remarks in a blog post that spread through Italy like wildfire.

“Would Montezemolo ever have spoken about Ferrari’s drivers the way John Elkann did today? Never a joy, really,” Turrini wrote.

“No sooner had I thanked John Elkann for bringing Ferrari back to world championship glory after 53 years in the WEC – and I did, for what it’s worth – than he delivered a statement bound to leave everyone stunned.”

He went further, drilling into Ferrari’s deeper dysfunction:

“Of course Ferrari’s mechanics are good. They always have been. But Maranello’s engineers and those leading them haven’t done their job if, after 21 races, Ferrari has zero wins and sits fourth in the standings. Fourth. Again. Hamilton has been a flop so far, yes, but what kind of car has he had? And Leclerc, damn it, has been waiting for a decent car since high school.”

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• Elkann slams Ferrari's drivers: ‘Talk less and focus on driving!'

And then came Turrini’s final, brutal verdict:

“If the grandson of Gianni Agnelli really thinks Ferrari’s problem is talkative drivers, then, at the very least, he needs to change his advisers, his consultants, his managers. Because believe me – if since Schumacher and Räikkönen Ferrari hasn’t touched glory, it’s not Alonso’s fault, not Vettel’s, not Leclerc’s, and not Hamilton’s. And if that isn’t understood, then truly, we’ll never win again.”

It was the kind of blistering intervention that rarely emerges from within the Ferrari echo chamber – and it echoed the unease felt even among loyalists: that Elkann had chosen the wrong target, at the wrong time.

Unity or Unrest?

Ferrari’s leadership insists this is not a crisis but a “course correction.” Yet the optics are unmistakable: the chairman criticizes, the star driver responds, and the paddock smells blood.

Hamilton’s declaration – part motivation, part message – may prove galvanizing. Throughout his career, he has turned slights into fuel, pressure into performance. For Leclerc, steady but weary of promises, Elkann’s words could feel like déjà vu.

Ferrari’s past decade has been littered with the wreckage of top talents left frustrated by a culture that talks of unity but traffics in blame.

Elkann’s impatience is understandable: seventeen years without a title would test any dynasty. But history shows Ferrari rarely thrives under public rebuke. In trying to demand silence, the chairman may have sparked another storm of noise.

Hamilton says he won’t give up. Leclerc says togetherness is the answer. Elkann says less talk, more drive. Somewhere in between lies Ferrari’s truth – and its test.

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